Annette Smith is executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, an organization she co-founded 15 years ago with Vermont citizens when a large energy project was proposed for her region. After successfully defeating that project, Annette has worked with Vermonters throughout the state to defeat large quarries, landfills, farms, and other large energy proposals while also improving Vermont’s groundwater protection laws. Derrick Jensen interviewed her for the May 18th airing of Resistance Radio.

Annette was favorable towards wind energy 10 years ago, but after investigating proposed development projects and comparing the rhetoric to the reality, Annette now organizes against these corporate projects and their overriding of community and environmental concerns. She details the negative impact of money-driven Vermont wind development on humans and nonhumans, from pollution of water supplies (second only to mountaintop coal mining in negative impacts), forest fragmentation, displacement of animals, and turning neighbors against each other.

Annette tries to address why so many well-meaning, good-hearted people have swallowed the propaganda that wind energy helps to address our climate change and other environmental problems, when in fact these projects don’t displace any extraction or burning of fossil fuels.

More than a dozen organizations and Indian tribes have announced plans to assemble on the outskirts of Green River, Utah, on May 19th to protest a proposed nuclear power plant near the banks of the town’s namesake river.

“This issue affects more than just southern Utah residents,” said Sarah Fields, director of the citizen group Uranium Watch. “That’s why we’re seeing involvement from downriver residents like the Fort Mojave and Colorado River Indian Tribes, along with those who live downwind in Colorado and points beyond. The effects of nuclear power are farther reaching than the reactor site and stretch well into the future.”

Protestors will assemble near the proposed reactor site at Green River’s west end, along Highway 6 just north of I-70 exit 157, at 6:00 p.m. for a march to “Celebrate and Protect the Green River and the Colorado Plateau.”

The parade will be set against the backdrop of the Book Cliffs and the proposed construction site. Participants are specifically asked to bring colorful umbrellas, while street art, banners, costumes, puppets, decorated bicycles and an enthusiasm for singing and dancing are also appreciated.

Those organizing the protest are motivated by a number of concerns, including the reliability of the company backing the plant, the secondary impacts of mining and milling radioactive minerals, and potential threats to regional safety. However, the biggest issue is water. “It’s foolish to build thirsty nuclear reactors in a desert like this,” says John Weisheit, Conservation Director of Moab-based Living Rivers.

“The Green River is unreliable and over-appropriated. Even the State Engineer, when granting the project rights to nearly 48 million gallons of water a day, asserted that there will not always be enough water to operate the plant.” He continues, “As we endure an ongoing drought here, do we want to further compromise the health of this life-giving river? Do we want a fickle desert waterway to be our buffer against disaster? I don’t think so.”

To further highlight themes of water, on Friday, May 18, at 7:00 p.m., protest organizers are also hosting “A Celebration of the Colorado River System: Discussion of Threats and Actions.”

This event, held at the Moab Arts and Recreation Center, will include traditional singing and dancing from members of the Lower Colorado Indian Tribes, a panel discussion on mitigating threats to Colorado River Basin water, and a documentary film about the long-term impacts of nuclear accidents like Fukushima.

Barbara Galler, a Moab resident and spokeswoman for No Green River Nuke says, “It’s true everywhere, but especially in the desert: Our survival is dependent on rivers. Granting so much precious water to a company with no experience or credibility in the energy business, for use in the riskiest form of power production, is an enormous mistake. That’s why I’m marching.” Protest organizers include: Canyonlands Watershed Council, Canyon Country Rising Tide, Colorado River Indian Tribal Members, Ft. Mojave Tribal Members, GreenAction, HEAL Utah, Living Rivers, No Green River Nuke, Sierra Club, Peaceful Uprising, Uranium Watch, the Utah Rivers Council and more.

The Keystone XL pipeline, proposed to carry oil from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, would have a devastating impact on the environment along its route, particularly in the Indigenous communities already marginalized by centuries of genocide. The Lakota people live above the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world’s largest aquifers, which supplies 30% of the water for irrigation in the United States and 82% of the drinking water for those living above it. Any spill, which judging by the record of other tar sands pipelines is a matter of when and not if, would be catastrophic for all the life that depends on this vital source of water.

Our wealth isn’t money, it isn’t material things, it is in our health and what we pass down to our future generations… We need to pass down to our generations good clean air, a decent environment, and water as it should be, without pollution.